What Is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Do you struggle with anxiety?

If you have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), you almost
always feel worried, fearful or anxious and you’ve felt like this for most of
each day, on most days, for longer than 6 months. Sometimes you feel tense for
no apparent reason, sometimes you worry about little things, blowing them up
way out of proportion and causing yourself unreasonable stress and anxiety.
People with generalized anxiety disorder tend to know that they worry too much,
but they can’t control their worry – their worry controls them.

Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder

We all feel anxious sometimes, but people who suffer from
generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) worry with an intensity that disrupts their
ability to live a normal, happy and healthy life.

People with GAD tend to feel anxiety or worry without cause,
feel worried or tense most of the time, or worry excessively about normal life
events. People with this disorder cannot “control” their worrying.

Some common symptoms of this disorder include:

An
often present feeling of worry or dread

Frequently
experienced or ever present tension (feeling “on-edge”)

A
lack of patience and irritability

Concentration
problems – getting easily distracted

Runaway
anxious thoughts

Being
easily startled

Feeling
lightheaded, or breathless

Fatigue

Sweatiness

Insomnia
or sleeping problems (waking up frequently throughout the night)

Physical
symptoms of tension, such as muscle tension, stomach pains, diarrhea or
nausea or headache

Trembling
or twitching

Children can sadly experience GAD and although they
experience much of the same worry, they cannot usually verbalize the way that
they feel; it is up to parents or caregivers to recognize the problem –
spotting Generalized Anxiety Disorder in Children.

Few people will experience all symptoms and many people
experience some variability in the severity of symptoms - feelings of anxiety
may retreat to the back-burner at times.

To meet a clinical diagnosis of generalized anxiety
disorder, symptoms of anxiety must have occurred:

Most
days, for more than 6 consecutive months

With
a sufficient severity to cause problems in social, professional or family
life

The
anxiety cannot be caused by the use of drugs or alcohol, by another
medication, by another medical condition and it cannot occur exclusively
during an active phase of another mental health disorder

Is it Normal Anxiety, or
a Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

There are three primary ways to distinguish normally
experienced anxiety from the worry and anxiety experienced by someone with
generalized anxiety disorder.

Most
people can control their worries. While at work, a person without GAD
might consciously “put-off” worrying about an anxiety provoking subject,
for example, finances or relationships – someone with GAD could not
likely delay this anxiety, and would spend much of the day worrying.

People
with GAD worry more frequently, worry for longer periods and with greater
intensity, than people without GAD. People with GAD often get anxious
without external triggers and feel very anxious about a wide array of
subjects. The more subjects that provoke extreme anxiety, the more likely
the anxiety is caused by GAD.

People
with GAD often experience anxiety caused physical symptoms, such as
fatigue, restlessness or irritability – people without GAD do not
typically experience these physical consequences of anxiety.

Who Gets Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

Women are twice as men to likely to succumb to generalized
anxiety disorder, but the disorder can afflict men and women of any age.

The disorder can begin at any age, although symptoms most
commonly begin before 25 years of age; and the symptoms tend to gradually
worsen over time. People experiencing the disorder often seek treatment for
physical symptoms, such as stomach pain or headache but it often takes doctors
a while to put all the pieces together and determine that physical symptoms are
in fact caused by a mental health disorder.

Most people with GAD (50% to 90%) experience a co-occurring
mental health condition, such as depression or dysthymia, drug or alcohol abuse
or panic disorder.

How Long Does Generalized Anxiety Disorder Last?

To meet the diagnostic criteria, symptoms of the disorder
must occur for 6 months or longer. Untreated GAD can endure for years – many
people entering into treatment for the disorder report feeling an underlying
tension and anxiety for as long as they can remember.

Treatment can control the symptoms of GAD and treatment will
work for about half of people within a few weeks and for three quarters of
people within 9 months.

What Causes Generalized Anxiety Disorder?

There are a number of factors that increase the risks of
experiencing general anxiety disorder, such as:

Genetics
- Having a close family relative with GAD may increase your risk.

Stress
– Living with chronic stress may predispose you to an anxiety disorder,
especially uncontrollable stress or a history of chronic stress paired
with a sudden trauma, such as an assault.

Serious
Illness – The diagnosis of a serious physical illness can cause great
stress.

Personality
Traits – certain negative or pessimistic personality traits can cause
people to worry excessively, which can lead to a clinical condition, in
some instances. Borderline personality disorder is also associated with an
increased risk or anxiety disorders.

Stress
or Trauma in Childhood – developmental stress during childhood can lead to
altered functioning of the stress response system in the brain, leaving a
person susceptible to anxiety disorders.

Treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The two most common treatments for GAD are medication and
psychotherapy, commonly offered together (research has shown that a combination
treatment produces a more sustained result).

Medications

The two most commonly used types of medication for GAD are
anti-anxiety drugs and anti depressant medications.

Anti-Anxiety Medications

These drugs work quickly and they can relieve symptoms of
anxiety very shortly after consumption. They tend to be slightly sedative in
nature. Some examples of common anti-anxiety medications include the
benzodiazepines, Xanax, Valium or Ativan. These drugs work well, but they are
highly addictive, and a tolerance to their effects develops quickly. After a
couple of weeks of continual use, you will not be able to stop taking
medications of this class without experiencing withdrawal symptoms, unless you
gradually taper the dosage down over time.

A newer form of anti-anxiety medication, buspirone, provides
symptoms relief without causing a physical dependence and is considered a very
safe drug for anxiety. Buspirone takes a few weeks to become fully active and
effective, and most people report that buspirone does not remove all (only
most) of baseline anxiety.

Anti Depressants

SSRIs, tricyclic anti depressants and selective
norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are all effective types of anti depressants
for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (New England Journal of
Medicine); due to the lower side effect profiles of the SSRIs these medications
are often the first line choice. Antidepressants take up to 6 weeks to become
effective.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy can help people take some control over their
symptoms of anxiety and can teach ways to deal with anxiety that does occur.

Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – an evidence based therapy that helps people
change unhealthy thinking and behavior patterns in order to produce
symptoms improvements, has shown real efficacy in the treatment of GAD.
(Read more about cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety). CBT is
the most commonly recommended psychotherapy for the treatment of GAD.

Relaxation
Therapy – Learning relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing,
meditation, imagery and visualization can help to reduce the intensity of
symptoms.

Interpersonal
Therapy – A therapeutic technique that looks to resolve relationship
problems so as to reduce the anxiety and stress.